Israel carrying out ‘mass expulsion of Palestinians’ in West Bank, UN warns

UN rights office says more than 36,000 Palestinians forcibly displaced in one year due to Israeli settler, army violence.Israel has forcibly displaced more than 36,000 Palestinians across the occupied West Bank in one year, the United Nations says, warning that illegal Israeli settlement expansion and a push to annex the territory are accelerating.Tuesday’s report by the UN-high-commissioner-for-human-rights" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="30252" data-entity-type="organization">Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights documented 1,732 incidents of Israeli settler violence causing casualties or property damage from November 2024 to the end of October last year.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3The Take: What the Iran war looks like from the West Banklist 2 of 3How badly has the Iran war hit the global economy? The tell-tale signslist 3 of 3What the Iran war looks like from the occupied West Bankend of listThat amounts to a 24-percent increase from the 1,400 incidents reported over the same period a year earlier.“Settler violence continued in a coordinated, strategic and largely unchallenged manner, with Israeli authorities playing the central role in directing, participating in or enabling this conduct,” the report found.The settler attacks, combined with Israeli forced displacement orders, home demolitions and military violence, have pushed tens of thousands of Palestinians to flee their homes across the West Bank, the UN rights chief also said.That includes about 32,000 Palestinians who were forced out of the Jenin, Tulkarem, Nur Shams and Far’a refugee camps in the north of the territory during an Israeli army operation.“The displacement of more than 36,000 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank represented the mass expulsion of Palestinians on a scale previously unseen, amounting to unlawful transfer that is prohibited under international humanitarian law,” the report said.“The displacement in the occupied West Bank, which coincides with the extensive displacement of Palestinians in Gaza, at the hands of the Israeli military appears to indicate a concerted Israeli policy of mass forcible transfer throughout the occupied territory, aimed at permanent displacement, raising concerns of ethnic cleansing.”